EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS - EFFECT OF TESTAMENTARY PROVISIONS ON EXECUTORS' FEES

Authors

Michigan Law Review, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

At the early English law an executor was entitled to the surplus of the personal estate after the payment of debts and legacies, but this practice nowhere prevails today. At common law the office of executor was regarded as honorary, to be performed without compensation unless the will expressly provided for compensation. It is doubtful if the common-law rule ever obtained in this country, where from a very early time it has been universally considered that executors are normally entitled to reasonable compensation not only to reward them for their time, labor and trouble, but also for the responsibility incurred and for the fidelity with which they discharge the duties of their trust. The tendency is to regard executorship more as a business motivated on economic principles than as a personal fidelity. As a result of this changed concept of the office of executor, only one state now follows the common-law rule, and there it has been enacted into statute law. All the other states permit compensation in the absence of an express provision in the will to the contrary.

Recommended Citation

Michigan Law Review, EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS - EFFECT OF TESTAMENTARY PROVISIONS ON EXECUTORS' FEES, 38 Mich. L. Rev. 381 (1940).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol38/iss3/6